[Editorial] It’s Time for Political Circles and People to Unite

The National Assembly passed an unprecedented impeachment motion that aims at unseating the nation’s head of state for the first time in the history of Korean constitutional government. President Roh should respect the outcome and the opposition parties should also do their best to prevent possible confusion or crisis in the state affairs. Although it is regretful to see such a sad outcome, there is now no alternative but to act wisely to overcome political deadlocks.

President Roh should keep it in mind that he is the one who triggered the causes of his misfortune. If he opened his heart more sincerely, he would have likely avoided such an extreme situation. Regarding President Roh’s apology, which was made just several hours ahead of the passage of the motion, the public could not stop criticizing the president’s narrow view in regard to his leadership and state affairs management.

The Constitutional Court now must make a ruling as soon as possible in regard to the National Assembly’s request to impeach President Roh Moo-hyun. This abnormal situation where the president is suspended from office should not last long. People already suspect that not only the fate of the president, but also the results of the upcoming general elections will be heavily dependent on when the Constitutional Court will make its final decision. Thus, the Constitution Court also should keep it in mind that it must thoroughly but speedily make its ruling in accordance with principles and the law, in order to prevent doubts in regard to the impartiality of the court.

Prime Minister Goh Kun now has a great deal of burden upon his shoulders. Although no one yet knows what decision the Constitutional Court will make, Goh who has become Korea’s de facto president must handle all the pending issues smoothly without delays. As the situation is unprecedented, there are yet no detailed guidelines that describe the transfer of the presidential power.

However, I trust Prime Minister Goh’s ability to handle state affairs as a professional administrator. Today Goh immediately called in Finance and Economy Minister Lee Hun-jai to ask him to take particular care on the international credit rating. This is a very appropriate response as a sound economy is foremost important for Korea.

The opposition parties must cooperate with the government. Passing the impeachment motion is not the end of the problem. If the oppositions want to make the impeachment as a “victory of parliamentary democracy” as it claims, they must contribute to making Korean politics more matured without causing a chaos. And in order to do that, the Grand National Party should take initiatives and transcend interests of the party for the sake of the people. At the moment, we are undergoing a situation where there is neither a president nor a ruling party. So now it is imperative for the opposition parties to become partners of the government and share responsibilities in all state affairs, including the general elections.

The Uri Party also must accept its defeat. It should stop taking extreme measures like the resignation of all of its lawmakers because such a response is not useful to anyone. The Uri Party should also not attempt to use the impeachment as a stimulant to gather its support groups ahead of the general elections. It should also keep it in mind that President Roh has just been forced to step down because he tried to link general elections to the vote of confidence. As what Cheong Wa Dae once said that it would let the people and the history judge this situation, Cheong Wa Dae should keep in mind to respect the outcome.

Both ruling and opposition parties should save words and behave discreetly. President Roh’s hatred of the opposition parties resulted in hatred of the president. And the hatred of the opposition parties eventually resulted in the passage of the impeachment motion. Our society has been divided into two extreme sides. One side now claims that the impeachment motion was a decision to save the nation while the other side claims that the impeachment motion was a coup disguised with legal masks.

If politics loses its balance, we can no longer stop disruption. We should make this crisis as a turning point to introduce an advanced democracy. The first step we can do to realize advanced democracy would be diagnosing the causes of the problem and studying how to prevent such a misfortune to occur again. Let us take the first step now while waiting for the ruling of the court to come out.